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More units test positive for methamphetamine at Longmont apartment complex

By Madeline St. Amour

Staff Writer

Posted:
09/11/2018 02:08:36 PM MDT

Updated:
09/11/2018 11:24:32 PM MDT

Five months after a unit in this building at Cloverbasin Village was closed for meth contamination, three units in another building at the complex were closed for the same issue. (Lewis Geyer / Staff Photographer)

This sign was posted Tuesday on the front doors of three units at Cloverbasin Apartments that have tested positive for meth residue contamination in Longmont. (Madeline St. Amour / Staff reporter)

Five months after units in two buildings were declared methamphetamine-affected properties, another building at Longmont's Cloverbasin Village Apartments has tested positive for contamination.

A test of unit 108 in Building 15, which sits off of Redmond Drive, found results of more than 0.5 micrograms of meth residue per 100 square-centimeters, the limit at which a space is considered contaminated in Colorado.

The air intake systems for units 108, 208 and 308, which sit on top of each other in the building, also tested positive for contamination, according to Chana Gouessetis, communication manager for Boulder County Public Health.

Longmont Code Enforcement has posted signs identifying all three units as meth-affected properties. It is illegal to enter the units until they are cleaned and test results drop below the legal limit for meth residue.

Exposure to meth residue can cause a number of symptoms, including skin irritations, chronic shortness of breath and fever.

This is the third building contaminated in 2018 in the complex, and it comes just about two years after nine units were contaminated in Building 5, displacing a number of residents.

Dakota Mitchell moved in across from unit 108 about three months ago. He said he's "a little concerned" about the contamination, but not much because the ventilation systems runs vertically up either side of the buildings.

According to Mitchell, apartment managers started looking into unit 108 about three weeks ago. When the residents in that unit moved out, they found evidence of meth, he said.

A spokeswoman for Mission Rock Residential, which owns Cloverbasin, did not immediately return a call for more information.

Longmont Police Deputy Chief Jeff Satur said that the prevalence of meth at Cloverbasin is a concern.

"It's extremely unfortunate that there are people who are using meth in these apartments and contaminating their neighbors," Satur said.

Cloverbasin is part of the crime-free housing program. While that doesn't mean complex managers are authorized to test residents for drug use, they can look at their criminal histories before residents move in. However, Satur said this issue doesn't seem to come from people applying for units.

"I have heard that many of the problems in that area are not the residents themselves, but from someone they allow to be at their apartments," he said.

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